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Sep 27, 2014 - Tolerance Indices of Plants in Port Harcourt. City, Nigeria. F. B. G. Tanee1*, E. Albert1 and Becky R. Amadi1. 1Department of Plant Science and ...
British Journal of Applied Science & Technology 4(34): 4835-4845, 2014 ISSN: 2231-0843

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Biochemical Properties and Air Pollution Tolerance Indices of Plants in Port Harcourt City, Nigeria F. B. G. Tanee1*, E. Albert1 and Becky R. Amadi1 1

Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Authors’ contributions

This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author FBGT designed the study, supervised the field and laboratory work, performed the statistical analysis and wrote the protocol. Authors EA and BRA wrote the first draft of the manuscript and managed literature searches; participated in the field and laboratory analyses of the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/BJAST/2014/13233 Editor(s): (1) Rui Xiao, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, China. Reviewers: (1) Anonymous, Misurata University, Libya. (2) P. O. Agbaire, Chemistry Department, Delta State University, P. M. B. 1, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history.php?iid=671&id=5&aid=6238

th

Original Research Article

Received 8 August 2014 th Accepted 12 September 2014 th Published 27 September 2014

ABSTRACT Aims: The impact of air pollution on biochemical properties and air pollution tolerance indices of ten plants growing at Trans-Amadi Industrial Lay-out and along East-West Road, Port Harcourt alongside Umuokiri-Aluu as control site were studied. Study Design: The leaves of the plants were collected and used to determine fresh weight, turgid weight, dry weight, relative water content, leaf extract pH, ascorbic acid content and total chlorophyll content. Air pollution tolerance indices were calculated from data obtained for each plant species. Results: Results showed that relative water content of leaf samples were of the order ___________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected];

British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 4(34): 4835-4845, 2014

Trans-Amadi Industrial Lay-out > East-West Road compared with the control. Leaf extract pH was higher at Trans-Amadi Industrial Lay-out and East-West Road than the control while Ascorbic acid was lower at Trans-Amadi and East-West Road. Percentage increase in air pollution tolerance index of seven plants of Trans-Amadi followed the order: Terminalia catappa (7.70%), Eluesine indica (22.24%), Musa sapientum (25.54%), Panicum maximum (26.56%), Psidium guajava (37.10%), Mangifera indica (44.18%), Delonix regia (181.90%) while that of East-West Road were of the order: Musa paradisiaca (4.84%), Chromolaena odorata (13.19%), Panicum maximum (20.17%), Musa sapientum (23.95%), Carica papaya (25.04%), Psidium guajava (25.32%), Mangifera indica (33.63%). Conclusion: Air pollution tolerance indices of the plants were of the sensitive category and hence they can be used to monitor air quality of Niger Delta. Keywords: Air pollution; biochemical properties; Port Harcourt; pollution tolerance.

1. INTRODUCTION Air pollution which can simply be defined as the alteration of the natural composition of the atmosphere especially due to human activities is one of the severe problems the world is facing today [1]. This condition results out of some anthropogenic activities such as urbanization, industrialization, vehicular exhaust gas emissions, power generation and some domestic activities. These processes release particulate matter, radioactive materials and gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NO), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), hydrogen chloride (HCl) and ammonia (NH3) into the atmosphere and therefore give rise to pollution. The presence and at certain concentrations of these substances in the atmosphere deteriorates air quality. Air pollution directly affects plants through direct uptake of pollutants from it by the leaves as respiratory organs or indirectly from soil acidification through root absorption. Most plants experience physiological changes before exhibiting visible damage on their leaves when exposed to air pollutants [2,3]. Some visible signs of air pollution impacts on plants include bleached spots, chlorosis, necrotic spots, lesions, premature senescence, reduced growth and yield in sensitive plant species [4-6]. Although, vegetation which serves as sink of air pollutants is an effective indicator of overall impact of air pollution have long been used as biomonitors of air pollution [7]. The effects of air pollution on plants are time-averaged results that are more reliable than those obtained from direct determination of pollutants in air over a short period. This is because plants provide an enormous leaf area for impingement, absorption and accumulation of air pollutants and so they reduce the pollution level in air [2]. This capability varies to some extents in different plant species. The use of Ascorbic acid content [8], chlorophyll content [9], leaf extract pH [10] and relative water content [11] have been used to determine the sensitivity and tolerance of plants to air pollution. Singh and Rao [12] classified Air Pollution Tolerance Indices (APTI) value of plants as follows: Categories of plants based on APTI S/No 1 2 3

APTI value >17 >10 and